astrophysicist and science communicator

lego

I love Lego. As a child my most prized possession was an electric Lego train set. These days I have a Lego Space Shuttle complete with mini Hubble Space Telescope sitting on my desk. However yesterday I was put to shame when the NRAOtweeted a link to the video below. This video shows a working Lego model of a VLA dish and transporter and is quite possibly the coolest Lego I have seen ever.

I thought Lego couldn’t get any better. I was wrong. A guy called Alan Rifkin has made a working telescope (almost entirely) out of Lego. It’s made of over 1000 Lego pieces, only 5 of which were modified and the only non-Lego bits are the lens and the tripod. When I finish my PhD I think I might have to dig out my Lego and attempt some creative model building. A Lego Lovell telescope has already been suggested…